


Change is built on small things

by ulittuq



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Battle of Hogwarts, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Ron Weasley is a Good Friend, Slytherin Ginny Weasley, Slytherin Ron Weasley, brief mentions of child death, i almost forgot to add that one whoops, in this house we love a respect ron weasley, mostly follows canon but ron is a slytherin, pansy where did you come from?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:28:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22625575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ulittuq/pseuds/ulittuq
Summary: P comes before W. Harry begs the hat, “Not Slytherin, please not Slytherin,” and the hat says, “Might as well be Gryffindor.” A few names later, the hat sits on Ron’s head and calls out, “Slytherin!”
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Ron Weasley & Pansy Parkinson
Comments: 11
Kudos: 258





	Change is built on small things

**Author's Note:**

> this is the longest one-shot i have written, probably bc i loop back around a lot, especially in the beginning. but i have a lot of feeling about ron weasley, our chest master and best friend, so take this. pls enjoy!

Ron is one of seven, just another Weasley in a long line, and you don’t grow up surrounded by people without learning to be quiet. In another world, in Gryffindor, Ron would be encouraged to be loud. To push to the front of the crowd, plant his feet, and dare someone to try and move him.

There is value in that. Of course there is. Children are not sorted by their value.

In another world, the hat peers into Ron’s head and sees a spine of steel and a budding friendship and says, “Gryffindor!”

In this world, the hat sees all of those, but also this: Ron looked into the Mirror of Erised and saw himself, the best of seven. Don’t tell me that isn’t ambition. 

In another world, Ron would carve a name for himself, eventually. Standing on the platform with his children, he would say, “They’re looking at me. I’m incredibly famous.” And he says it for Harry’s comfort, but it’s also a truth. See, Harry was the boy-who-lived, the chosen one, the-man-who-conquered. In the eyes of the world, he was always going to be a hero; he was born for it. 

(No boy is born for heroism. Boys are broken into it.)

But Ron was one of seven. Ron was petty and jealous and ordinary. He was a boy who planted his feet and dared war to move him.

But that would take years. Years of Ron looking at himself and thinking: you are the one they can afford to lose.

In this world, the hat sees all of this or maybe none of it. Maybe the hat just sees this: a boy with a spine of steel and a budding friendship and the worlds “Red-hair, freckles, and hand-me-down robes? You must be another Weasley,” ringing in his head.

Maybe the hat sees an opportunity, too. The hat belonged to Godric Gryffindor, once, back when Salazar Slytherin was still counted as a friend. Maybe the hat looks at the budding friendship and thinks: here is a chance.

After all, in four years’ time, the hat would sing of uniting or crumbling from within. There is no harm in starting a little early. 

The hat lands on Ron’s head and thinks of all of these things, but also thinks of where would suit Ron best, because that is the hat’s job. 

And the hat yells out, “Slytherin!”

A year later, the hat would land on Ginny’s head and yell out Slytherin, too. Because Ginny was this side of sharp.Because Ginny broke into the broom closet to steal her brothers’ brooms. Because Ginny learned when the fight back and when to use her position as the youngest and only girl to bring her mother’s wrath down on her brothers.

Also because this: Ginny and Ron were the two youngest. Bill and Charlie were more like babysitters than brothers, Percy always acted more like an old man than a child, and Fred and Geroge were so wrapped up in each other. When Fred and Geroge went to Hogwarts, it was just Ginny and Ron for two years.

In Slytherin, together, they become a team. Ron with his sharp eyes and sharper mind. Ginny with her tongue-lashings and carefully crafted innocence. 

No matter the world, at Grimmauld place, Ginny would flick dung bombs at doors and convince her mother she hadn’t, even with the filth still on her hands.

(Ginny still pours her soul into a diary. She still lies cold and still on the Chamber floor. But the next year, when people whisper about her being the true heir of Slytherin, Ron will sling an arm over her shoulder, grin, and say, “Aren't we all?”)

But, now, the hat has just shouted Slytherin for Ron and the hall is silent.

Harry is the first to start clapping. He has “There wasn’t a witch or wizard who went back who wasn’t in Slytherin” in his head, but he also has Ron’s tentative smile and a budding friendship.

Ron goes to the Slytherin table and sits at the end. He doesn’t look towards the Gryffindor table. He doesn’t want to see his brothers. 

If he had looked, he would have found them clapping. The Weasleys were a family of Gryffindors, but all of them could have gone to Slytherin. 

But Ron doesn’t look up. The thing is, Ron knows his family loves him, but it’s easy to forget, sometimes. Easy to fall into thinking that he has to earn their love, earn sweaters in his favorite color and sandwiches he likes. Easy to think that as soon as it becomes a chore, they won’t love him anymore. 

Slytherin will teach him that they do love him, as fiercely and unconditionally as he loves them, but right now, he hasn’t learned that yet. Right now, he is afraid. Right now, he is eleven and wishing he was in Gryffindor and beside his brothers, even though he has spent his life wishing to stand apart. 

This is the cost of growing up, of growing out. There is always a cliff edge you have to plunge over. Ron is standing at that precipice, now, teetering uncertainly. 

It’s okay to take your time before jumping. Close your eyes and take a breath. Enjoy being a child, for just a little bit longer. 

(They all have to grow up so quickly, these children. They were not born into peace, but a cease-fire. War is on the horizon, swiftly approaching, jaws stretched wide to snap them up. It will sink its teeth into each and every one of them. 

Each of them will be driven from the edge a bit too soon, but they’ll right themselves on the way down and land on their feet.)

Harry manages to catch Ron’s eye and sends him a smile and a thumbs up. Tension bleeds from Ron’s shoulders and he smiles back. 

Putting Ron in Slytherin isn’t wishing him an easy path. In Slytherin, he is a blood-traitor and house pride only goes so far. Malfoy seers at him and most of the upper years turn the other cheek and Snape looks at him like he’s a particularly interesting specimen he can’t wait to dissect. 

But there are good parts, too. He waves at the merpeople--though they hardly wave back--and sometimes catches glimpses of the giant squid.

(In fourth year, he’ll listen to the clue in the golden egg and say--)

Millicent and Blaise are nice or, at least, they don’t mind partnering with him in classes they don’t share with Gryffindor. 

(In seventh year, when Ron hunts horcruxes, Blaise sneaks messages to the DA and Millicent looks big and scary if she frowns, but, as soon as the Carrows look away, she slips candy to the younger years.)

Malfoy sneers and hisses insults and Pansy titters behind her hand, but it’s hard to hate someone when you’ve seen them with bed hair and falling asleep on their charm’s essay. 

(For the Yule Ball, Ron paints Pansy’s nails a shimmering green, because she can’t get her right hand neat and spelling them isn’t quite the same.

“You’re good at this,” Pansy says. 

“Thanks, Charlie taught me. But I’m pants at doing it on myself,” he says, not looking up from where he carefully dragging the brush. 

“I can do yours,” she offers and seems surprised that she did. 

Ron pauses to look up at her. “Sure,” he says, “but not this color. I know it’s Yule, but I’m not looking to show up in Christmas colors.”

A smile tugs at Pansy’s mouth. “Lucky for you, I’ve got a blue that’ll bring out your eyes.”)

Ron still snaps at Hermione and Hermione still cries in the bathroom. Ron and Harry still save Hermione from the troll and there are still some things you can’t go through with becoming friends. Fighting a mountain troll is still one of those. 

These are still children who will fight for each other. They will set teachers on fire and stand on broken legs and ride on thestrals to war for each other. They will tangle their fingers together and plant their feet and dare war to move them. 

Really, what changes is this: when Ron looks into the Mirror of Erised, he will see a world where red hair does not make him just one of seven and where the color of his tie does not determine his goodness. 

In seventh year, in the Great Hall, when McGonagall says, “Escort the Slytherins out,” Nevile (who had spent a year haunting the halls meant to be safe, who has been spared injuries because of Blaise’s information, who has heard the stories of Millicent from children with tear-stained cheeks and chocolate frog cards clutched in their hands) stands up and says, “Slytherin doesn’t mean dark. Anyone can leave, but anyone can stay, too.” 

Pansy doesn’t fight. She knows, somewhere, behind a mask, is her father. She was raised ruthless, between two wars, but she doesn’t want to kill her father. 

But she didn’t urge everyone to give up Harry. She loves her father enough to not want to kill him, but she doesn’t want him to win, either. Because the world her father wants is a world where kind boys who paint her nails are killed. 

Pansy doesn’t leave. She doesn’t fight, but she doesn’t leave. Instead, she stays in the Great Hall and helps Madame Pomfrey as best she can. And she was raised ruthless, but as she tries to stop the bleeding of a deep gash on a second-year who got caught in the crossfire, she wants to ask her father: is this what you want? When I was twelve, would you have killed me if your Lord demanded it? Will you kill me now? Is it worth it?

And, when Madame Pomfrey pulls her away from the tiny, cold body, she will decide: no, it isn’t. 

Ron finds her after, her knees tucked to her chest. Her hands are clean, only because it’s unsanitary to treat patients with someone else’s blood on your hands. 

Ron’s brother is lying cold on the floor and Harry has come back from the dead, but he goes to Pansy. Because his family has each other and Harry has Hermiones and so many others, but right now, Pansy is alone. Because her father was behind a mask and her tie is green and this makes her evil. 

He slides down the wall to sit next to her. They do not speak, because there is an impossible grief at the back of both of their throats that swallows their words. 

But it’s enough to have someone. To know that there is someone else also bowing beneath the weight of the world. 

They’ll get a flat in Knockturn Alley together, because Pansy grew up ruthless and Ron grew into sharpness. Pansy will become a back-alley healer, someone to go to when you need help but can’t afford to go to St. Mungos. Ron will help teenagers get part-time jobs and some form of education. They will learn how to be without war.

The first time Pansy brings a girl home, Ron will say, “If you hurt her, I’ll hold you down while she punches you,” and Pansy will say, “Please, I’d hex her.”

At Ron and Hermione’s wedding, Harry will be Ron’s best man, but, after his speech, Pansy will stand up and clear her throat. 

“Firstly,” she will say, “I’d like to thank Charlie Weasley, because if he hadn’t taught Ron how to paint nails, I’d never have become friends with him.”

So, no, Slytherin isn’t wishing Ron an easy path. But it's a good one. 

**Author's Note:**

> i was not expecting pansy to show up, but i couldn't resist adding in a lil something w her and then she kinda stole the show. but i think it works out in showing how slytherin has shaped ron and ron being in slytherin has shaped the ppl around him


End file.
